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The overpaid suits who work for Worcester’s school department downtown have been patting themselves on the back for the last 24 hours because the charts are in, and apparently they have fixed the public schools:

The woman in the picture is Phyllis Goldstein. On September 1 we reported from confirmed sources that she made a girl in her class pee her pants when she would not allow her to use the bathroom. This is the same woman who happens to be best friends with Lisa Dyer, and whom Dyer called into school from her downtown administration job to “evaluate” Janice Harvey last year. If you recall, she vindictively gave Janice Harvey a poor evaluation in order to build a case that Ms. Harvey should be removed from North High School. This of course was all part of Lisa Dyer’s plan to get rid of Janice Harvey for using the “racist” term “color-blind” when she looks at her students.

So keep that in mind. This is the woman that the WPS chooses to pose for their picture on the front page of the Telegram when they’re bragging about their graduation rates:

“We’re very excited,” Interim Superintendent Marco Rodriguez said at a press conference in his office at the Durkin Administration Building. “We expected some positive movements, but this is always a time to celebrate. A lot of people made a commitment, and now we’re seeing the results.”

The district’s four-year graduation rate improved from 79.2 percent in 2013-14 to 80.8 percent last school year, while its dropout rate decreased from 2.4 to 1.7 percent. A few of Worcester’s high schools in particular have made significant gains over the last few years, led by North High, whose four-year graduation rate jumped from just 55.1 percent in 2011 to 77.6 percent this past year. The school’s dropout rate also shrunk during the last four years from 7.5 to 1.8 percent, according to the state’s data.

See that right there? That is everything that is wrong with public education. These people are obsessed with data. It consumes their minds. But at the end of the day data can be easily manipulated in order to improve these charts. So how did North High jump from a 55.1% four year graduation rate, to a 77.6% four year graduation rate? To find that out we spoke with a couple of teachers from North High School:

“We’ve been told by our superiors at faculty meetings and other times off the record, that no student is allowed to have an average of below 55. This way it gives kids the opportunity to make up work and pass a class at the end of the year, even though they’ve done virtually nothing the entire year. I’ve had several students with averages below 40, as have other teachers, because some of these kids miss 30-40 days a year. And we have been told in no uncertain terms that this is unacceptable. Suppose a student’s average for the first three quarters is a 35. It is mathematically impossible for them to earn a passing grade of 65 for the year, even if they had a 100 average for the fourth quarter. So we have been instructed not to “bury” kids like this, because they will be in a hole that they cannot dig themselves out of by the fourth quarter.”

Oh I see. So you’re telling me that kids aren’t actually EARNING these grades – they are being artificially inflated so that they don’t give up in April. Basically what’s happening here is that the only students who are held accountable for their grades are the ones who are passing. If you get a 75 for the first three quarters, you don’t get any extra points. But if your average is 35, teachers are forced to give you 20 free points (that’s 60 total points), so that you don’t lose your precious confidence. Awesome life lesson we’re teaching kids. If you fuck around and don’t come to school, the teachers will bail you out.

But why are they being forced to do this?

“Lisa Dyer has hammered home the importance of improving North’s graduation rates. She’s never once been in my classroom, has never taught my subject matter, but when a student does poorly in my class she blames it on me. I guess I’m supposed to go to each kid’s house and wake them up every morning to make sure they come to school, because the number one reason that students do poorly in class is because of poor attendance. We are offered no support and no advice from administration. We’re just told what the benchmarks are (improved MCAS scores and graduation rates) and told to make them happen. It doesn’t matter how we do it, all that matters is the end product.”

See that? This is what is called a “primary source.” All Marco Rodriguez and company are doing is looking at the end product – improved graduation rates. But they’re not bothering to investigate WHY or HOW the numbers have improved. Because the dooshnozzles who run our schools don’t care about how or why. All they care about is the bar graph. That’s it. They need a flashy number to throw up on a PowerPoint so they can show their bosses in Boston what a great job they’ve done “turning around” a “failing” school.

The Massachusetts Education Commissioner is a dingbat named Mitchell Chester.

According to him, these numbers are both good and bad:

Overall, Mr. Chester said he was proud of the “tremendous” gains made statewide in the latest graduation data. But he also tempered that enthusiasm with a more realistic outlook on the issues schools still face trying to get students to not only graduate, but also leave prepared for whatever next step they make in their careers.

“We know too many of our graduates are not ready to succeed,” he said, referring in particular to the “sobering” number of high school graduates in the state who have to take remedial coursework after enrolling at community college.

HAHHAHAHA. These people are just so stupid, I can’t help but laugh at them. Hey Chester, you know why these kids who are graduating need remedial coursework in community college? Because schools are passing them when they should be failing them. And you know why they’re doing that? Because YOU are putting unrealistic pressure on them to artificially raise graduation rates. And when kids don’t come to school, and don’t do their work, and don’t pass tests, and don’t do homework, they don’t learn and they’re not ready for college. But you’re FORCING SCHOOLS to pass X amount of kids so you can have a nice looking chart to show all your useless hack friends down at the Cape this summer. This is ALL YOUR FAULT!!!

Anyone with a brain could’ve seen this one coming. Kids will always be the same. There will ALWAYS be kids who don’t do the work. Society will always have lazy people, which is fine because someone has to work at McDonald’s. But instead we’re perpetuating this LIE that every kid MUST go to college, and in order to do so they all have to graduate. And instead of the kids and their parents taking the initiative to pass classes on their own, you’ve put the burden on schools to use their magical powers to get kids who don’t give a shit to suddenly care about their education.

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